New Delhi: Twenty years after the deadly Bhopal gas leak disaster claimed 15,000 lives and injured five lakh persons, the Supreme Court today (July 19, 2004) directed disbursement of Rs 1503 crores of Union Carbide money among them.

A Bench comprising Justice Shivaraj V Patil and Justice B N Srikrishna passed his order on a petition through advocate S Muralidhar by representatives of 36 affected wards at Bhopal, which turned into a graveyard after the leakage of deadly Methyl Iso-Cyanate gas from Carbide factory on the night of December 2-3, 1984.

The immediate death toll was over 4,000 but the figure swelled as people, suffering from the poisonous effect of the gas, continued to die in various hospitals.

The Carbide, on the basis of a settlement between it and the Union Government, had deposited $ 470 million in the Supreme Court on account of its liability towards the victims.

The money was directed to be deposited in a dollar account, of which Rs 86 crores has already been disbursed as compensation to the injured and the kith and kin of the dead, has swelled to Rs 1503 crore over the years with accrual of interest on the corpus.

The Bench directed the Welfare Commissioner, appointed under the Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985 to disburse this Rs 1503 crores among the claimants on a pro-rate basis.

Without fixing a deadline for completion of the disbursement of the compensation, the Bench asked the Commissioner to give a report on this within three months.